Shortlist announced for the 2012 Food and Drink iNet Innovation Awards

The Food and Drink Forum, organisers of the 2012 Food and Drink iNet Innovation Awards have unveiled the names of the shortlisted candidates in the running to receive an accolade.

The candidates include businesses and universities around the East Midlands.

The winners will be revealed at an awards ceremony at Athena in Leicester on November 15th, hosted by comedian Ian Moore.

Food and Drink iNet director Richard Worrall said: “We had a record number of entries this year to the Food and Drink iNet Innovation Awards, which reflects the exciting research, development and business growth going on in the East Midlands food and drink sector.

“We are looking forward to hosting the awards ceremony, which has become one of the highlights of the calendar for the industry in the region. I am sure it will be inspirational to hear about the very different forms that innovation can take.”

This year there are four categories in the Food and Drink iNet Innovation Awards – with the overall winner being named Campden BRI Innovation Champion 2012.

The shortlisted nominations are as follows:

The Clegg Food Projects Ltd Most Innovative Business Growth Award

• Dovedale Foods Ltd, St John Street, Ashbourne, Derbyshire, with a production unit at Southglade Food Park, Nottingham. The firm has been shortlisted for its creation of Agile Manufacturing (a term applied to an organisation that has created the processes, tools, and training to enable it to respond quickly to customer needs and market changes while still controlling costs and quality) to support the scaling up of manufacture of Dovedale's Sauces for Choice brand, with capacity to offer short-run production to other local small enterprises struggling with the capacity requirements of larger contract manufacturers.

• Original Recipes, Boythorpe Business Park, Dock Walk, Chesterfield, Derbyshire. The firm has used an old recipe and given it a modern twist to create Granny Mary%u2019s Finest Potted Beef, and has used the same ethos to drive the company%u2019s project growth by getting chosen as one of the final 18 in the new BBC3 series Be Your Own Boss. This gives the firm the opportunity to broaden contacts and experience, enabling the maximisation of marketing and promotion of the business in a relatively short period of time.

• The Bottle Kicking Cider Company, Hallaton, Market Harborough, Leicestershire. The company has been shortlisted for the conversion of metallised bags, previously used in the wine industry, to enable creation of a draught real cider that fulfils the CAMRA criteria, that can be stored and used from the bag whilst keeping the airtight vacuum to prevent spoilage and improve shelf life.

The Nottingham Trent University Most Innovative New Product Development Award

• Moonshine Drinks Ltd, Fairview Court, West Bridgford, Nottingham. The enterprise has developed a revolutionary home brew system to create quality real ales by simply adding tap water into the unique laminated bag to achieve ABV of 4%.

• The Gourmet Spice Company, Kettering Road, Weldon, Northamptonshire. The firm has been shortlisted for challenging traditional flavour delivery techniques to create flavour combinations that are both innovative and exciting. This has enabled Gourmet Spice to develop products that deliver multi-sensory experiences.

• Xcel Milk Nutrition Ltd, Coton Road, Walton on Trent, Derbyshire. The company has been shortlisted for the development of a unique fresh milk-based post-exercise drink, after working with sports nutrition experts and applying existing research in sports recovery.

Most Innovative Positive Impact Award

• Deli Continental Ltd, Pintail Close, Victoria Business Park, Netherfield, Nottingham. This project focused on achieving the very best nutritional values in Deli Continental%u2019s pizza bases, initially with salt reduction, whilst ensuring the authenticity of their artisan production methods. Collaboration with the University of Nottingham has resulted in a product that has already raised interest with local county council schools.

• Lindhurst Innovation Engineers, Midland Road, Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire. Founded on anaerobic digestion, the H2AD technology that Lindhurst has developed in collaboration with the University of Nottingham and Arla Foods is based around a microbial food cell that allows bacteria in food waste to digest quicker and produce a hydrogen rich biogas.

• Nutbrook Brewery, Hallam Way, West Hallam, Derbyshire. The company has invested in a wind turbine and some solar panels to create electricity for the brewery and to reduce controllable costs whilst having a positive impact on the environment and the firm%u2019s carbon footprint. Nutbrook Brewery hopes to also inspire other small businesses to follow suit and embrace the benefits of environmental responsibility.

Most Innovative Collaboration Award

• Biopolymer Solutions Ltd, Sutton Bonington Campus of the University of Nottingham, near Loughborough, Leicestershire. Research at the University of Nottingham discovered that the properties of xanthan gum could be changed by extrusion cooking. Collaboration between the University of Nottingham and Biopolymer Solutions has enabled funding to support the ongoing trials into the range of applications of the new material, hydraxan, which reduces issues of poor xanthan dispersion.

• Just Egg Ltd, Hilltop Road, Hamilton Industrial Park, Leicester. By working in collaboration with the University of Leicester, with support from the Food and Drink iNet, Just Egg has been exploring a cost-effective and environmentally sustainable way of disposing of the firm%u2019s egg shell waste. The company is now well on its way to using the egg shells in the reformulation of plastic to make recycled packaging to protect their egg-based products.

• The University of Northampton and the University of Nottingham. This collaboration of the Universities of Northampton and Nottingham with Stichelton Dairy in north Nottinghamshire focused on the aroma development and influence of secondary microflora in blue cheese production to enable an understanding of the variants that can influence the consistency of cheese production.

Tickets are now on sale for the ceremony to present the Innovation Awards, which are being held for the fifth year, and which recognise and reward the brightest ideas in the East Midlands’ food and drink sector.

Part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the Food and Drink iNet co-ordinates innovation support for businesses, universities and individuals working in the food and drink sector in the East Midlands. It has developed an effective network to encourage the collaboration of academic expertise and knowledge, and local food and drink business innovation needs.

It aims to build on the tradition of innovation in the food and drink industry in the region by helping to create opportunities to develop knowledge and skills, and to help research, develop and implement new products, markets, services and processes.

The Food and Drink iNet is managed by a consortium, led by The Food and Drink Forum and including Nottingham Trent University, the University of Lincoln, and the University of Nottingham. It is based at Southglade Food Park, Nottingham, with advisors covering the East Midlands region.

For more information about the iNet visit www.foodanddrink-inet.org.uk 

Tickets for the Innovation Awards cost £69.50 plus vat per person, with discounts for members of the Food and Drink Forum, and are available by contacting the events team on 0115 9758810.

Some sponsoring, table hosting and exhibiting opportunities are still available for the event. Contact the events team for details.

Source: DNCC (http://goo.gl/u4A8y)